Friday, 24 February 2012

The new CIF does not appear to be anything new or indeed radical. Quite rightly, teaching, learning and assessment (new addition) are the central focus. The leadership team should be driving the quality improvement of teaching and learning whilst not losing sight of success. The bar has been raised. Satisfactory is being replaced with ‘needs improvement’, but hey, don’t outstanding teachers still need improvement! Oh, and no limiting grades. So what?

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script -- give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher available to help.

Enterprising educators are using Twitter in creative ways, to engage students inside and outside of class, to stay on top of education news, and keep in touch with peers and students. A recent post by Best Online Colleges enumerates 28 ways to use Twitter in class. They’ve asked me to repost, and I’m happy to share it.

1.Instant feedback: ReadWriteWeb and Mashable both featured Monica Rankin, a history professor at University of Dallas, and discussed how she utilizes Twitter to gather real-time feedback. Students send questions and input to the microblog, which end up projected right there during lectures; Rankin encourages them to study one another’s insights.

Friday, 20 January 2012

...why not take a look at my other blog which is being launched on Monday. It will promote that e-materials produced by the learners on the C/DTLLS programme and demonstrate just what can be done in a very short space of time...

Tuesday, 17 January 2012

This is a very interesting discussion on the extent to which the John Lewis style of management and corporate governance can be transposed into other organisation / industries. One wonders the extent to which Education invests in their staff in the same way as John Lewis. Thoughts?

In their last 22 college inspections, not one was graded as outstanding for teaching and learning. The new boss, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has high expectations...He states, “...Standards are too low and they have to be raised. Undoubtedly in some places it’s going to be harder than others. But if we want a world-class education system that’s what we’ve got to do.’

Understanding the new expectations will be critical to our ultimate success. Whilst there are some 18 criteria to consider it really boils down to the following: how much new learning has taken place?

1. In an outstanding lesson, all of the learners will be making better than expected progress for the level and stage of programme. There will be strong evidence of learner progression throughout the curriculum2. In a good lesson, most of the learners will make better than expected progress for the level and stage of programme. The remaining learning will still make progress3. In a satisfactory lesson, almost all learners will all make satisfactory progress for the level and stage of the programme. This means that they may all learn, enjoy and achieve, but progress is no better than expected4. In an unsatisfactory lesson, most learners fail to make satisfactory progress for the level and stage of the programme. There is very little new learning taking place

If you get a moment, read the latest article from Sir Michael Wilshaw, new Head of Ofsted. Too many satisfactory colleges have been coasting; satisfactory is going to be replaced with requiring improvements...Our policies and procedures will have to reflect this sentiment...let me know your thoughts.

Tuesday, 20 December 2011

Simon Kay is an AP at Filton College, Bristol. He kindly agreed to be filmed delivering a micro-teach on nutrition. Here is the edited version. Why not use it to inform one of your training sessions on observations and the difference between good and outstandingf teaching.

Firstly I want to explain the rationale underpinning the changes to the new inspection framework.

The Education Bill, which is currently before parliament, sets out proposals for some broad changes to the way schools are inspected. This has enabled Ofsted to develop a new framework, which we believe will make an even greater difference to schools and the pupils they serve. We want to have a stronger impact on driving improvement and raising standards. As with all frameworks, we are building on the strengths of the current framework and looking to raise expectations.

And we are also taking this opportunity to streamline the inspection process and sharpen our focus even more on what really matters in schools: the quality of teaching and learning; pupils’ achievement; behaviour and safety; and the effectiveness of the school’s leadership and management. The slimmer framework will allow inspectors to spend even more time observing the quality of teaching in classrooms, and they will be able to focus on key issues such as literacy, including listening to children read.

Friday, 16 December 2011

I thought it might be an idea to start to build a bank of videos which give teachers top tips on how to differentiate, stretch and challenge etc. Here is one i cobbled together earlier. After recoiling from the embarrassment of seeing myself on video, im looking for volunteers. Those which put themselves forward will have the rather dubious honor of appearing on the blog. So, who’s up for it?

I thought it would be useful if I started to post some top tips which focus on teaching and learning, but also, management skills.

Schemes of work: Produce a scaled down version of the SoW for your learners and use it to reflect upon progress. Students are often unaware of their progress against criteria and this can boost confidence and be used for target setting

Thursday, 20 October 2011

This video has been produced in order to give staff a brief overview of some of the technologies that are driving changes in education. If you are interested in learning how to use any or all of the technologies, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me at mark.jones@filton.ac.uk

They can each be mastered in less than two hours, even if your skill base is relatively low. I am happy to deliver to teams or individuals.

Please take a look at my other blog for some ideas on how to use technology as a teaching and learning aid,

Friday, 26 August 2011

This is a copy of a video which was taken on the first day of new staff induction. Hazel, Deputy Head of Teacher Development, takes the staff through a dance montage with very good results; I think some of them are naturals. On a more serious note, it demonstrated how, through careful facilitation, a group of learners can acquire new skills, have differentiated outcomes and be stretched outside of their comfort zone.

The video was produced on i-Movie in less than 10 minutes. If you are interested in learning how to edit and produce you own i-Movies, just drop me a line on mark.jones@filton.ac.uk

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Welcome to the P4L blog

My name is Mark Jones and I am the Head of Teacher Development at Filton College, Bristol. This site has been developed as part of the college's move to embrace social networking and to improve the means by which we communicate with staff and students. It will form part of a pilot study starting with sport, business and law, humanities and teacher development. Each blog will in turn link to other forms of social networking, for instance, facebook and twitter. The results of the studies will be shared on the blog and reviewed on a 3 monthly basis. The pilot will begin in earnest at the start of the next academic year (September 2011).

I hope you find this blog of use and welcome your comments on how it could be improved...